Wearable Devices: New Ways to Manage Information

Although the Information Age has many upsides, one of its major downsides is information overload. Indeed, the amount of information easily pushes the limit of what people can manage. This conflict drives research to seek a solution to humanity’s information woes. As computers have shrunk from room size to palm size, so they have also moved from being passive accessories, such as laptops and personal digital assistants, to wearable appliances that form an integral part of our personal space. Wearable computers are always on and accessible. As the computer moves from desktop to coat pocket to the human body, its ability to help manage, sort, and filter information will become more intimately connected to our daily lives. The paper discusses the principles of wearable computers.